62 Essays in Anarchism and Religion: Volume 1
This kind of mutual activity was not unheard of at the time.
On the one hand, the Bakongo familial and kinship structure
often engaged in similar collective enterprises. As many Zombo
in Angola told me, migration from rural Maquela do Zombo
to places like Léopoldville or Luanda were often covered by the
collection of money through an extensive network of village and
clan members.^39 But also in the urban, metropolitan setting of
Léopoldville one could observe the influence of movements such
as the Amicalist project, described above, and Kitawala (the au-
tochthon version of the Watchtower). From this perspective, mu-
tualism was in many ways engrained in Bakongo culture. But this
specific project appeared as an expression of Christian mutualism,
equally based in an ideal of religious communitarianism and liber-
tarianism. This ideal in turn stemmed from a double, concomitant
recognition of the inherently hierarchical and unjust version of
Christianity imposed by the Western missionaries in the region,
and the remembrance of a ‘original’ version of Christianity – that
of the time of the apostles –, based on communality and solidarity.
Despite the failure of this specific mutualist project, Toko did
not give up on his collectivist projects, and continued to push for-
ward an agenda of a dignified, peaceful resistance. And, as many
Bakongo in Luanda told me, Nkutu a Nsimbani in fact became
a ‘seed’ out of which several other grassroots projects emerged.
Toko’s encouragement of “communal solidarity, discipline in work
and the learning of new skills” had a considerable impact, and
several former members of the Nkutu a Nsimbani engaged in new
ventures.^40 Such was the case, for instance, of the ASSOMIZO
(Asociation Mutuelle des Ressortissants de Zombo), a Zombo
mutual aid society organized in 1956 by Emmanuel Kunzika and
André Massaki which would eventually transform into a polit-
ical party known as ALIAZO (Alliance Zombo) and later into
the PDA (Partido Democrático de Angola) which, along with an-
other paramilitary movement, the UPA, would form the FNLA
(National Liberation Front of Angola, led by Holden Roberto).
From this perspective, many Bakongo in Angola today see Nkutu
a Nsimbani as a precursor of Angolan nationalism, at least in
what concerned the capacity of creating a collective venture
that disconnected from and fought against any state sponsored